Deuteronomy 21: The Right of the Firstborn / Rebellious Children
Deuteronomy 22: Miscellaneous Laws / Laws Concerning Sexual Relations
Day two of grab bag regulations, ending with some good, old-fashioned sex.
The Right of the Firstborn: Deuteronomy 21.15-17
This commandment states that the firstborn son is to receive 2/3 of his father's inheritance, even if the second-born son is loved more by the father. The reasoning is somewhat circular, but was probably convincing enough for the people reading it: the firstborn is "the first issue" of the father's "virility" and therefore the right of the firstborn is his.
The topic of the firstborn is of great interest to the biblical authors and is a great concern to the biblical narrative as a whole. Frequently societies favor the first born in terms of inheritance and importance within the family. This section states as much. In the Torah, however, we constantly find this idea being undermined.
Rebellious Children: Deuteronomy 21.18-21
A rebellious son is to be stoned to death as a warning to all Israel [that the xth commandment shall be obeyed].
Stubbornness and rebelliousness, the marks of a rebellious son, are apparently manifested in gluttony and drinking. The parents are to tell the elders of the town, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard."
Miscellaneous Laws: Deuteronomy 21.22-22.12
What follows is a list of miscellaneous laws, abbreviated for the sake of brevity.
Bodies hanged as punishment for a crime must be not remain overnight on the tree. They shall be buried the same day because the person is under God's curse, so leaving the corpse defiles the land.
If you see your neighbor's ox or sheep straying, return them to him. If you don't know who it belong to, keep it until your neighbor claims it. The same goes for anything a neighbor loses that you find. [Help in Israel is to be an active, rather than a passive, activity.]
If you see your neighbor's livestock fallen on the road, help it up; don't ignore it. [Again, you are to help your neighbor.]
Cross-dressers are abhorrent to the Lord.
If you come upon a bird's nest and see a mother with eggs or hatchlings, let the mother go but take the young, "in order that it may go well with you and you may live long." [The juxtaposition of the mother's spared life and "your" own long life is no coincidence. This law betrays a favoritism for old over young, established over new.]
Houses should have parapets along their [flat] roofs [that functioned as domestic spaces], lest someone fall off and you incur bloodguilt.
A vineyard should be sown with only one type of seed, or you the crop and the entire yield will be forfeited. [This is a law of holiness: what goes in a field must remain uniform. The introduction of a new seed would corrupt the land, much as the introduction of a new god would corrupt Israel.]
An ox and a donkey should not be yoked together for plowing. [Another regulation concerned with holiness.]
You shall not wear clothes made of wool and linen woven together. [The third consecutive holiness regulation.]
Cloaks are to have four tassels.
The Virginity Trick: Deuteronomy 22.13-21
Here a clear example is given of a plausible situation.
A man marries a woman, but after having sex decides he dislikes her. He therefore states that the woman was not a virgin, and in doing so gains cause for divorce and slanders the woman terribly. So how do you prove exactly what happened on the wedding night? The woman's father and mother can fight the case by spreading the bloody bedsheet before the elders of the town. The man will then be fined 100 shekels for slander, to be given to the woman's father. As punishment to the husband [and to the wife, though to the biblical author women are frequently of little concern] he will not be permitted to divorce his wife.
If the charge is true, however, the woman shall be brought to the entrance of her father's house (which, in classic biblical metonymy, the very one she disgraced).
Other Laws Concerning Sexual Relations: Deuteronomy 22.22-30
If a man is caught lying with the wife of another man, the woman and the man who was caught lying with her shall both die.
If a man rapes a virgin woman engaged to be married while in a town, they shall both be stoned at the gate of the town, the woman because she did not cry for help and the man because he violated another man's wife-to-be.
If a man rapes an engaged virgin woman in the open country, only the man shall die. Because there was no one there to rescue the woman, she will not die.
If a man rapes a virgin that is not engaged, and they are caught in the act, the man shall give 50 shekels to the woman's father and the woman will become the man's wife. Because the man violated the woman, he may not divorce her. [The dynamic behind this one is rather chauvinistic. The sex-marriege economy ensures that the woman is only a piece of property that may be traded between father and husband. By raping the woman and paying the bride price, the man in effect buys the daughter. In this instance, the rape could conceivably be committed with intention to buy, as it were. The divorce clause is set up as a punishment, but the only person who it would punish every time would seem to be the raped woman.]
A man shall not marry his father's wife. [In the sex-marriage economy, you may not steal your father's property.]
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